WASHINGTON, March 15 (Kyodo) - By: Keiji Urakami U.S. President Bill Clinton will make a historic visit to Pakistan next week to urge its military government to show a road map toward cracking down on terrorism, curbing nuclear proliferation and restoring democracy.

Pakistani military ruler Gen. Pervez Musharraf, who captured power in a bloodless coup last October, has made scant progress on these requests laid out by the U.S. administration in January.

But U.S. administration officials say engaging Islamabad is essential to meeting these goals.

Maintaining ''lines of communication may be very important in any future crisis,'' Secretary of State Madeleine Albright told reporters Tuesday.

Some critics say Clinton's decision to stop in Pakistan during his nine-day South Asian tour from Saturday is tantamount to endorsing the coup that toppled a democratically elected government.

But Albright dismissed such interpretation. ''I want to leave no room for doubt. In no way is this a decision to endorse the military coup.''

Regardless of what Washington hopes to gain by the stopover, Islamabad did not conceal its delight at the U.S. decision.

''Clinton understands the importance of his coming to our country,'' Pakistani Ambassador to the United States Maleeha Lodhi said in an interview with Kyodo News on Tuesday.

''It's up to the United States to determine what it wants to signal by that. But more important than that is the signal it's sending to people in Pakistan,'' she said.

Pakistan's archrival, India, is said to have lobbied hard against Clinton's brief trip to Islamabad, which will be the first visit to that country by a U.S. president since Richard Nixon in 1969.

But Indian Ambassador to the U.S. Naresh Chandra denied the allegation last week, saying, ''There has been some misunderstanding, as if the Indian government and others went all out to block this visit and so on. I think that's a very, very wrong image that has been received.''

Clinton's tour will focus on India, where he will visit five cities over a full five days. The president will stay in Pakistan for only a few hours on the last leg of the tour, which will also take him to Bangladesh.

During the Cold War era, Washington's foreign policy in South Asia leaned toward Pakistan, which it supported in fighting against Soviet soldiers in Afghanistan.

But focus later shifted in favor of India. Most recently, Islamabad angered Washington over the conflict with India last summer in the Kargil region of Kashmir and its coup in October.

Over the past several years, the U.S. has been increasingly concerned about Pakistan's support of Afghanistan's ruling Taliban movement, which is said to be providing refuge to Saudi dissident Osama bin Laden, the suspected terrorist believed responsible for bombing two U.S. embassies in Africa in 1998. The U.S. has asked the Taliban to surrender bin Laden for trial.

''Another vital U.S. interest in Pakistan is countering terrorism. The terrorist camps next door in Afghanistan directly threaten American lives. Because of Pakistan's influence with its neighbor, this matter will be high on the president's agenda,'' Albright said.

Noting Musharraf plans to go to Afghanistan within the next several months, Ambassador Lodhi indicated Islamabad's readiness to mediate between the Taliban and the U.S. if Pakistan is asked to do so during Clinton's visit. ''We will have to see if that request is made. We will have to respond to that.''

''General Musharraf has publicly said he would like to find a solution to the bin Laden dispute,'' the ambassador also said. ''There is so much influence Pakistan can exercise on Afghanistan.''

Another U.S. concern about Pakistan's policy on terrorism is its perceived reluctance to outlaw Harakat ul-Mujahedeen, a group reportedly engaged in terrorist activities.

Recently, Pakistan placed under house arrest a member of the group whom India had released from jail in exchange for ending the hijacking of an Indian Airlines jet by Pakistan-backed Kashmiri militants. The measure was widely seen as too lenient.

The U.S. has also been critical of alleged links between Pakistan and Islamic militants fighting to expel Indian forces from Kashmir.

Former U.S. Ambassador to India Frank Wisner told reporters Tuesday that over the past years such militants ''found haven in Pakistan, and they have exported terrorists across the border into India.''

''The actions along the line of control do have an active element of Pakistan involvement -- the arms, munitions, the artillery screens that are laid before infiltration takes place,'' Wisner said.

On the territorial dispute with India over Kashmir, Lodhi characterized the situation as having ''a high degree of nuclear risk,'' and sought anew third-party mediation.

''We're not able to resolve this ourselves. We need international help,'' the ambassador said, calling for Washington to step into the dispute, a proposal flatly rejected by India.

The U.S. has maintained it will not budge unless approached by both parties.

Karl Inderfurth, assistant secretary of state for South Asian affairs, said, ''The president has stated clearly he wants to help promote that dialogue. But we do not see ourselves as mediators on this issue.''

''Today, India and Pakistan have zero interaction at the government level and at any level. This is unheard of in the recent histories of countries with antagonisms like that,'' said Shirin Tahir-Kheli of the Paul Nitze School of Advanced International Studies.